An invigorating afternoon

Today was Caroline’s first volunteer day at the pound . We walked Mandy, who jumped on everything. With her, we practiced, “Off!” A wire terrier named Sammy hated being taken out. We couldn’t walk him. But we sat and held him, teaching him the big world might not be so bad. Then we walked Angelique who was anything but angelic. She practiced “No,” and “C’mere.” And also, she trained us on leash escape tactics. Finally, we went into the cat room, where we found out Booker hates to have his neck scratched. All in all, it was an invigorating afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This is my entry for Velvet Verbosity’s 100 word challenge this week. The word is invigorating! And holy HELL those pictures make my hands look larger than life!! Seriously. Those hands are twice as big as my real ones!!

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

An invigorating afternoon — 17 Comments

  1. It’s going to be fun to watch how she blossoms with this.

  2. What fun! When my kids are a bit older I think I’ll look into volunteering at the animal shelter

    • It’s a great introduction to volunteering. There’s a wide variety of stuff you need to do, and some of the tasks are more pleasant than others, which gives them a good idea about balance.

    • Yes! Most of the other cats were purry and happy. And the dogs were all barky and wonderful.

  3. The beauty of working with animals is that their feedback is clear and immediate. Learning how to read the warning signals really pulls us out of our own head. This sounds like it will be a great experience! Thanks for playing #100words again!

    • That’s so very true. I grew up in a house with anywhere from 7 to 13 cats and 2 or 3 dogs at any given time. We had hamsters, turtles, fish, and even an iguana at one point. Animals are quite communicative.

  4. Ow is right! Hopefully once the animals get accustomed to Caroline, they will be less ‘invigorating.’

    • I think it’s more once we get the hang of what we’re doing. Part of the point of having the volunteers walk the dogs is that these are often strays with no human contact. They have to learn how to react to a leash, and it’s not easy. The cats are kind of in the same boat. I’m sure poor Booker is used to living outside, not cooped up in an apartment. (The animals do have a lot of space, which is good, but seriously, if you used to own the outdoors…)

  5. Oh, man! Understand this so well. Kitty’s motto is, “I can always touch you, but you better be careful about touching me.” Figuring out when it’s okay is like taking a cat psychology test.

    Loved this, Jessie. I used to think I wanted to add a little dog to the family, but I hear they don’t use a box. 🙂

    • Heh. No, no boxies here. Chewie requires frequent walks and pooper scooping.

  6. Ouch. If this week’s prompt would have been painful you could have replaced invigorating with that!

    • Well, sort of. It really was fun – it was more that each good thing had a bad. Not a bad thing for Caroline to see in action really. Even if blood was shed!

  7. owowowowowow! I am soooooo not a cat person. (not owned by any animal other than hubbymoose, who only THINKS he owns me – haha) I’m glad you had a good time despite the markings. 🙂